Bomb blast causes holiday chaos in Majorca

31 July 2009

Thousands of holidaymakers were left stranded as Spanish police stopped aircraft and ships leaving the island of Majorca after a bomb attack killed two police officers in the resort town of Palma Nova.

The blast, blamed on the Basque separatist group Eta, took place in Calvià just a few hundred metres from crowded tourist beaches.

Two officers from the civil guard police force, Carlos Saenz de Tejadá and Diego Salva de Lezaun, were killed instantly when the bomb exploded under their car.

The blast was the second attack in two days. On Wednesday 65 were injured, including five children, on Wednesday when a car bomb was detonated outside a barracks complex in Burgos, in the north of Spain, an attack police also blamed on Eta.

Police blocked entry to Spain’s third biggest airport at Palma de Majorca, and cruise liners were ordered not to raise anchor. The ban on departures was lifted several hours later, but dozens of flights were either delayed or cancelled.

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Some 660 flights had been due to leave or arrive at the airport during the day, according to Spanish press.

A Foreign Office spokesman said that so far there had been no reports of any Britons injured in the blast.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos is due to start his summer holidays in Marivent Palace, just 10 miles away, this weekend.